November 17, 2014 - In which the Czechs celebrate the Velvet Revolution

Dear family,

Last week was interesting, as always! We had some great meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Ř and with the Š last week, who are both less actives. Sister Ř has a smoking problem that we were able to talk to her about (she's been working on this for about two months now). She and brother Ř are raising their grandchildren, none of whom are baptized. Last week was the first time that we had a conversation about helping them to prepare to be baptized. They weren't very anxious to have the oldest baptized, but he is enjoying primary when he comes and also praying with us. I think he would be excited to prepare for baptism.

We had a great day on Wednesday visiting the Š. They are an older couple that that were active in Prague for many years. They moved to a village that's an hour away from ČB and they've essentially been less-active since. They haven't had missionaries out there in a while until a couple of weeks ago, and have been slipping on some of the basic scripture study that they need. They were very strong members, and they've had some great spiritual experiences that they've told us about and so it has been great to meet with them and talk about what they can do to make that brighter in their lives again.

On the way home from the Š we stopped at a referral that we received. We met a mother (whose daughter referred us to them) and a grandmother who are both very spiritual people who seem like the type that do the best that they can with the light they have. We had a great first meeting and are excited to return later this week!

(I don't have anything firsthand to update you with concerning E and J. Our lessons with E and J were when I was on exchanges, but J still hasn't come to church and E seems to be doing well.)

We had great exchanges on Thursday night and Friday. I was in Plzeň with Elder Romrell. Plzeň is a great city. I got to see quite a lot of the members there, who were all really nice and welcoming. Pretty much everyone cancelled on us, but it was still a good exchange.

Today is a state holiday celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of Communism. Everything has been closed (including the library), except for the castle in Hluboká nad Vltavou :) We went to today to finally take a tour of the castle with the sisters. It was fabulous, but unfortunately photography was forbidden :) I don't really have photos to send! After the tour we had some Czech food (svičková) and Czech cola (Kofola) so we've had just a really Czech day.

I don't really have additional time since we are a little crunched, but love you and I'll try and catch up on writing others next week :)

Love,
Elder Boyce